thebarricade

“On the Barricades” s05e12 In this second episode of this week’s release of “On the Barricades,” hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat discuss the much-debated critical theory. Critical theory was, in its classical form, meant to be an intellectual tool in the hands of the oppressed for fighting systemic oppression; however it became both caricatured by the right and co-opted by liberals, finally devolved into a “lucrative word salad”. What were the originally progressive tenets and aims of critical theory, really? How and why has it become so misunderstood? And how has this intellectual and ideological trend, which now dominates in the West, been received differently in Eastern Europe, wherein the academic institutions have not been subject of the same wild adventure through postmodernism and deconstruction? The conversation begins as commentary on the book, “Cynical Theories”, by Helen Pluckrose and James A. Lindsay.

“On the Barricades” s05e11 In the discouse on the war in Ukraine there are plenty of examples of articles, op-eds, and analysis wherein feminism is stripped of its essence and used to advocate a pro-war agenda. The establishment subordinates feminism to its interests, for example, by highlighting the choice of a female NATO leader, or by advocating for the recruitment of women into the military. Arguments craftily go from womens’ rights to promoting the sale of weapons. Where is this kind of debate on “the complex relationship of gender and war” going? And where is the international feminist movement that’s anti-imperialist? In this first episode of this week’s release of “On the Barricades”, hosts Maria Cernat and Boyan Stanislavski take up these questions and discuss such distortions of feminism under the pressures of the war-time propaganda.

“On the Barricades” s05e10 This week, hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat are speaking with Stefan Georgiev, Bulgarian sociologist and political analyst, about the recent events suffered by the fragmented political party system in Bulgaria. In this second episode Stefan continues the discussion with Maria to elaborate on some parts of the political process taking place during this shift from the government led by Kiril Petkov to a new formation. (Note: this discussion took place in the AM of July 15th, before the third mandate was given by President Rumen Radev to attempt the formation of a ruling coalition from existing members of Parliament). They cover: what is the role of the Macedonian-Bulgarian dispute that caused (as pretext) Slavi Trifonov’s ‘There is such a people’ party to abandon the government? How are Russophobia and Russophilia, particularly now at time of war in Ukraine, playing into the electoral strategy and policy of the various parties? These polarities will serve the political players in the potential upcoming general election in October, as was the case in the radical decision of Petkov to expel the entire staff of the Russian embassy on his way out. Finally, what can we make of the possibility of the inching back into power of a governing coalition led by formerly-entrenched Prime Minister Borisov, whom the pro-change parties have been fighting all this time over the last 1-2 years?

“On the Barricades” s05e09 In the last year and a half, Bulgarians have seen three rounds of general elections which have attempted to cobble together, from a wide and fragmented cast of confused political projects, a functioning ruling coalition to govern. Now Bulgaria faces a potential fourth general election, after the so-called pro-change government led by Kiril Petkov broke up on June 22. Everything had to change so that precisely nothing would change, it seems – but what is reproducing the crisis in the political system, or rather the party system? This week, hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat speak with Stefan Georgiev, a Bulgarian leftist sociologist and political analyst. In this first episode Stefan provides an overview of the events that led to this most recent impasse. The Bulgarian political elite represent, less and less, the society they govern as much as corporate and financial interests of the mafia and multinationals who sponsor their projects in Parliament. As a frankenstein-like body of incoherent, barely-political voices, these offer no basis for even a minimum stability in parliament, let alone genuine representative democracy. Boyan and Maria discuss with Stefan: could this end up in any other place than authoritarian disaster? Will there be major constitutional reform making Bulgaria a presidential republic, as some analysts prescribe? Or will Borisov, the formerly-entrenched mafia-tied prime minister, come back on a white horse?

“On the Barricades” s05e08 In this second installment of this week’s release of “On the Barricades,” hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat are speaking again with Stanislav Byshok, a Russian political scientist. Stanislav earned a PhD after graduating from Moscow State University, and he is frequently described as a scholar deconstructing nationalism and populism in international researcher databases. He’s written a number of books and reports on current Russian, Ukrainian, and European politics. Here we turn to making some assessments and a balance sheet of the war in Ukraine– economically, morally and militarily. Have the last four months of military operation in Ukraine meaningfully achieved the stated objectives of demilitarization and deNazification of Ukraine? It appears not. But the Russian government line on the war, on repeat, is that “everything goes according to plan,” as they claim victories on isolated incidents of military advance. Overall, though, what has been the “plan”, and what has been achieved for Russia, to justify both the loss of life of soldiers on the front and the chipping away at the quality of life imposed by sanctions? The Russian populace isn’t privy to such a plan. When it comes to explaining why there is a basis of support for continuation of the war, Stanislav identifies some psychological factors and rationalizations that are at work, as well as how the current situation demonstrates a classic military-strategic fallacy from a political science point of view.

“On the Barricades” s05e07 On this week’s release of “On the Barricades,” hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat speak to return-guest Stanislav Byshok, a Russian political scientist. Stanislav earned a PhD after graduating from Moscow State University, and he is frequently described as a scholar deconstructing nationalism and populism in international researcher databases. He’s written a number of books and reports on current Russian, Ukrainian, and European politics. First we discuss the issue of academic work and freedom of speech in Russia, compared to Romania and Poland. Stanislav gives us his insight into the changes in work conditions in the Russian academic institutions since tenure was replaced by work contracts some 25 years ago. We discuss recent examples of censorship on campus, and more broadly in society, to see how the Russian authorities suppress critique of their policies – especially debate on the validity of the war.

"On the Barricades" — Boyan responds to a viewer’s question Boyan Stanislavski, one of the hosts of "On the Barricades," recorded a solo video to respond to a question posted by a viewer in the comments of one of our videos. The question was about whether Eastern Europe will face a crisis of Sri Lankan Proportions. Boyan’s answer is, in short, no. Looking at some nuances of the Polish economy (which relies much less on imports of food than that of Sri Lanka), he explains his view of how policies of the Polish government caused the current inflation. Then, he discusses the question of the character and size of the upcoming impacts that will result from the war in Ukraine, sanctions, disruptions to supply chains, and various economic crises on the international and national level.

“On the Barricades” s05e06 For our second segment of this week’s “On the Barricades,” we turn to the situation in Romania. Despite the relative political stability, compared to the major crisis in Bulgaria we looked at in the previous segment, Romania too is seated with a deep crisis of democracy. The hosts Maria Cernat and Boyan Stanislavski examine some mechanisms by which the secret services and security apparatus completely dominate the political system, leaving little room for even fighting among oligarchs – managing to jail any political actors who get in the way of their enrichment from state funds or who try to take power from the institutions for themselves. They get around the supposed judicial reforms to make sure bribery rules in important court cases; or they opportunize on the past academic plagiarism of politicians to blackmail them, for example. Scandals are either backed up or silenced by the corporate media. The hosts also discuss a trend seen both in Poland and Romania of members of state using their position to promote themselves for a better position within NATO– in cases sacrificing the interests of the people without even attaining their own careerist end. The leadership of both Romanian and Polish governments were bought, very cheap, by the CIA to conduct operations and torture ‘terrorists’ at the Black Sites, in the early 2000s, for instance. The Social Democrats, the closest thing to a bearer of a social democratic tradition and with a stable electorate, has been co-opted and makes for very weak opposition, not unlike the Socialist Party in Bulgaria.

“On the Barricades” s05e05 In this episode of “On the Barricades,” hosts Maria Cernat and Boyan Stanislavski take up the slew of events and underlying factors leading to the present crisis in Bulgaria, where the pro-West, formerly darling Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has lost a vote of non-confidence in the National Assembly on June 22, placing the country back into parliamentary breakdown. The Petkov government of technocrats and Ivy League graduates won the last election in a new formation, “We continue the change” (Prodalzhavame Promyanata), in November 2021. Despite lack of experience they seemed to uphold a semblance of minimal government functioning for a few months. But with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February this year, Petkov had to make a critical decision on how to cling to power: and it would be by signaling his undivided allegiance to the Western powers who use Bulgaria as a tool in their geopolitical ambitions against Russia. Petkov chose the path of hard NATO lackey and enemy of Putin: refusing to pay for gas in roubles and even expelling 70 Russian diplomats from Bulgaria, calling the current challenges a Kremlin conspiracy against him. This despite the fact that there is no mass support for such antics or role for Bulgaria in a country where many feel sentimental ties to Russia. The hosts look from this trajectory to the alternative figures who will run in a likely-near round of elections, as Bulgaria’s external orientation is called into question. These are the former army general Stefan Yanev, whom Petkov removed as Minister of Defense for his pro-neutrality stance on involvement in the war; and the fringe Revival party, who channel pro-Russian sentiment but seem to have no plan in place beyond that for when it comes to solving the massive economic and institutional problems Bulgaria faces.

“On the Barricades” — s05e04 On this week’s “On the Barricades", hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat are speaking with Emese Szilágyi, a Hungarian human-rights lawyer and Junior Research Fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, to look at Hungary. In this second instalment we go beneath the rhetorical layer of Orbán’s brand of popular politics to clarify the picture of how he holds on to power and his voters’ support. Despite what western narratives would have us imagine about his cheap ‘populism’, the fact is that Orbán’s has several tools by which he manages to satisfy his voters’ basic needs and keep the standard of living high enough. And he enjoys the backing of, not only the majority of Hungarians, but also indirectly that of the EU, an institution which Orbán’s of course pretends to be highly at odds with. This relationship can be well-understood based on how Orbán’s has attacked labor protections, counter-reformed the tax policy, and offers heavy subsidies to make Hungary ripe for investment and exploitation by German capital. This extends and broadens the perspective we began with in the last episode of how Orbán casts himself a ‘protector’ of Hungarians via, for example, his non-support for Ukraine or NATO. Or, via his extended use of the emergency measures act, which is just one instance of how he uses the legal system in his favor, having carved out the constitution and rules he will play by. We also return to discuss the other major factor playing into Orbán’s popular support, which is the political shallowness of his opposition and their uselessly limited appeal to morality.

“On the Barricades” — s05e03 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the infamous right-wing authoritarian EU leader, extended his party’s 10+ year regime by winning the April 2022 election by a landslide. Having won on a campaign of bold neutrality and non-support of Ukraine in the war, he promptly amended the Constitution to enable himself to run what has been a near-continuous state of emergency, going back to the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. The current state of “danger” enacted in late May, due to the war in a neighboring country, allows him to appear a strong protector of his citizens, backing up his surprisingly successful pro-peace rhetoric. Not that the state of emergency during the pandemic protected Hungarians from the epidemic, or that any “protections” are in place against the economic fallout of that and now more inflation. But what kind of opposition does Orbán face? Rather than offering anything politically substantial, the other parties of parliament unite on their wanting Orbán out– without an idea of how to do so or what to replace him with. Instead they obsess about the constitution reform, which no one cares much about in the current circumstances. Given the elitist self-promotion and political shallowness, it is no wonder there has been a mutual loss of respect between these parties and Hungarian society– a gift to Orbán. “On the Barricades" speaks with Emese Szilágyi, a Hungarian human-rights lawyer and Junior Research Fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who is also the editor of the Institute for Legal Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Arts' blogsite, to discuss these issues, and the overall state of affairs in Hungary.

“On the Barricades” s05e02 In this second instalment of this week's release of “On the Barricades,” hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat continue to overview some interesting research and theoretical literature to address the successes and viability of the planned economy. This is an analysis hugely ignored or poorly-understood even by leftists who seek to organize and build socialism. The capitalist ideologues and the propaganda machine do a fine job of offering superficial ways out of the crisis and fake solutions to inequality and poverty. These absorb, more intimately, our lives into the profit-making system – such as the advice to stand up straight and look into the mirror before a meeting to boost some hormone or another. Or, the idea that economic planning doesn’t work, whilst reinforcing the status quo that is in fact based on sophisticated economic planning! Boyan and Maria refer to the books: “The People’s Republic of Walmart,” by Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworsk,; and “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World” by Anand Giridharadas.

“On the Barricades” s05e01 Huge corporations like Walmart and Amazon are a capitalist success story in the use of union-crushing and other means to maximally exploit their employees and enrich a layer of shareholders. And yet another key to these corporations’ success is internal planning– in fact their business model exemplifies a planned economy, one that is larger than the economy of some nations, such as that of the former Soviet Union. And yet, time and time again we’re told that a planned economy can’t work, and that competition and free-market principles are proven. Contrary to this propaganda we find, within capitalism, the foundations for socialism. This is the argument of the book, “The People’s Republic of Walmart,” by Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski, on which Boyan and Maria center this week’s show. In this first episode of a new season of “On the Barricades,” hosts Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat discuss myths about the free market, comparing the principles in theory and in actual implementation under capitalism; then, the real problems of the ‘planned economy’ in the case of Soviet war-communism. What are the strengths of the Chinese economy – in which the commanding heights of the economy, the sectors and enterprises that determine the economy’s form, are within the domain of state planning – in comparison to the Soviet Union? And what can leftists learn from these historical and contemporary lessons in political economy?

"On the Barricades" - s04e52 This is the second installment of this week's “On the Barricades” release. This episode is part of our regular series, which we co-produce and co-host with Youri Smouter of 1+1. Maria, Boyan, and Youri discuss: 0:45 Another instance of liberal democracy not working in Eastern Europe: the falling apart of the government taking place in Bulgaria. 👎 19:30 The Summit of the Americas in L.A. from June 6-10, in which thumbs up 👍are due to AMLO (president of Mexico) for boycotting in support of banned Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua; and to Fernández (president of Argentina) for speaking against the US and privatization schemes of the IMF. In Bolivia, the former president and Christian-supremacist Anez is sentenced to prison for her role in the 2019 coup. 👍 Chilean President Borek, in a with coalition of leftists, seizes the opportunity of the Summit to condemn Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. 👎

"On the Barricades" - s04e51 This our thumbs up and thumbs down session with Youri Smouter of 1+1 (https://www.youtube.com/user/Yourismo...) 01:00 Maria Cernat on the meeting in Kiev of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis with leaders Macron, Schultz, Dragi to negotiate a corridor for grain transit from Ukraine, through Romania. 👍 Iohannis’s leadership style– quiet and obedient– and his getting cut out of a photo and forgotten about by the Western press, which invites the ridicule of Romanian media. 👎 12:12 Boyan on what would have happened if the Polish (or Hungarian) president had been cut out. It would be a gift for the nationalists in power to use the state-owned media to ramp up their propaganda against the Western bureaucrats. 18:15 Maria on the situation of the left in Romania. The utterly opportunistic Social Democrats govern with the National Liberal Party. A small pocket of urban leftists, and another of nostalgic Socialist Party supporters (who are the only ones against NATO) have little voice. 👎 23:45 Boyan mentions a politically-confused BDSM-dove symbol output by the Polish left for Gay Pride. 25:05: Congrats to Kiev, Ukraine for becoming the most popular tourist destination for politicians! 👍 On the grain transit plan through Romania and the questionable grain shortage*, from Boyan. *Also written about here: https://thebarricade.online/what-grai...

Maria Cernat, one of the hosts of "On the Barricades," recorded a solo commentary. She discusses Lindsey O’Rourke’s study on the use of regime change as a tool for the US to advance its interests around the globe, based on data from the Cold War period. The book not only shows that the documents support the critics of the US administration. Maria discusses how the evidence confirms the following observation of hers: that the pressure of such US attempts to implement covert regime change “democratically”, for example via civil society and influence on the intellectual environment of the country, actually creates an opposition– authoritarian leaders who protect themselves with a powerful security apparatus. This dynamic is a recipe for global stagnation, says Maria.

"On the Barricades" - s04e50 ...Or, how the state institutions were sacked and all we got was this suspect philanthropist funding anti-racism projects. In this second episode of this week’s “On the Barricades”, hosts Maria Cernat and Boyan Stanislavski continue the discussion that began on the issue of racism toward the Roma population in Eastern Europe, who were the first victims of the transition to capitalism, and yet whom are blamed for myriad social problems by the victims living next door. The very understanding of racism is obscured by fake solutions that lay claim to anti-racism as a boutique careerist project of endless grant-application writing to the oligarchs who fund them, therefore ensuring that no one brings up the class aspect. Connected to racist attitudes are often frustrations about a breakdown of the state institutions that took place in Eastern Europe during the transition. But this is not something to be overlooked in analyzing this question of who lost out, and who is really to blame.

"On the Barricades" - s04e49 The Roma population in Romania, 86% of whom live in appalling conditions that force children to beg and hunt through trash to survive, are the target of major, normalized racism by their non-Roma neighbors; similarly so in Bulgaria and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. In this episode of “On the Barricades,” Maria Cernat and Boyan Stanislavski discuss this problem – not from the perspective of blaming such racist attitudes prevalent – but in terms of how wider cultural and economic-systemic factors push the vast majority of society toward or under the poverty line, while eroding solidarity and thus fuelling racism. We can also measure the problem of racism, and see that it’s not inherent in those who espouse it, by looking back into recent history to compare the massive difference in the state’s ability to take care of the population during socialism versus in the present.

Olena Lyubchenko, a PhD candidate at York University in Toronto, came On the Barricades to discuss how she experienced some of the reactions that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Olena is the author of the brilliant article “On the Frontier of Whiteness? Expropriation, War, and Social Reproduction in Ukraine” in which she first tackled the issue of the hypocritical reactions to the severe crisis in her country. She was brave enough to denounce the theatrics of the Housing Corporations in Canada. Just months ago, they were evicting migrants who were unable to pay rent due to the Covid pandemic. However, they suddenly discovered their humane side in offering shelter to Ukrainian refugees. Olena Lyubchenko and Maria Cernat debate the booming Ukrainian surrogacy business and its political economy. Why did Ukraine become such a hub for wealthy Westerners in search of surrogate mothers? How do race, gender, and class contribute to this situation?

Olena Lyubchenko, a PhD candidate in political science at York University in Toronto, is the author of the brilliant piece “On the Frontier of Whiteness? Expropriation, War, and Social Reproduction in Ukraine.” She came on the Barricades to discuss Ukraine as a militaristic capitalist state. Hers is a perspective absent from the mainstream press: what is the nature of the Ukrainian capitalist state? In the first section of our show, Olena Lyubchenko and Maria Cernat talk about Ukrainian working-class people and how the militarization that started years ago affected them. The burden of a hyper-militarized society was especially detrimental to Ukrainian women working underpaid jobs and dependent on a defunded public sector. They were also the ones who had to take care of children, go to work in menial jobs in the Global North, and remit money back to Ukraine. Europe and its leaders praise the brave and heroic Ukrainians fighting to preserve European values, but they seem to completely ignore the fact that it was the hard labor of Ukrainian women over the decades that made it possible for the state to function. And, as Olena points out, there were no hot bowls of soup or lionizing articles awaiting them when they had to flee the economic war waged against them by the capitalist state. Olena Lyubchenko is, of course, a very articulate intellectual, but she is also a person whose grandmother still lives in Eastern Ukraine - near the zones where heavy fighting is now taking place. She offers the perspective of someone who’s been directly affected by the Ukrainian state’s capitalist laws which act, for instance, to make it difficult for citizens in separatist areas to collect their pensions. But she is also a person who can take these experiences and put them into the context of class, race, and gender-based oppression.

The hosts of the show discuss the ever-intensifying craze on the 'progressive left' in Eastern Europe that attempts to mimic the most toxic 'woke' trends emerging in the United States in this episode. Now, Polish feminists have taken on Mother's Day, which is observed throughout the region on June 26th. Of course, this is just one example of the 'progressive' activists' ongoing detachment from reality.

"On the Barricades" — s04e45 #OntheBarricades #otb #feminism #fakefeminism #foefeminism #Romania 🙏💰 Please, support us via PayPal at https://paypal.me/thebarricade or by becoming a Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/thebarricade 🙏💰 In this episode of "On the Barricades," Maria Cernat and Boyan Stanislavski talk about the phoniness that passes for feminism in Romania and is applauded by some progressives. They also discuss how dominant feminist trends appear to be completely out of step with the political, social, and cultural realities of Eastern Europe, as well as top-down methods of imposing feminist or progressive solutions and why they fail.

"On the Barricades" — s04e44 #Ukraine #Russia #StandWithUkraine #war #imperialism #OntheBarricades 🙏💰 Please, support us via PayPal at https://paypal.me/thebarricade or by becoming a Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/thebarricade 🙏💰 This is the second part of our conversation with Patricia Gorky, an American leftist activist and member of the Party for Socialist Liberation. She spoke with Boyan Stanislavski and Maria Cernat, the hosts of "On the Barricades," about the situation in the United States. In the previous episode, we discussed the impending abortion ban and the Democrats' cynical approach to the issue, as well as the baby formula shortage. This installment focuses on the so-called aid package for Ukraine, which consists primarily of weapons. While inflation is skyrocketing, rents are becoming unaffordable, 80 percent of the population lives paycheck to paycheck, and roughly half of the country's population lives in poverty, the US government is sending a sum equal to Ukraine's six-year military budget. What is the point of this? With the exception of a large cash transfer from the Covid relief fund to the military industrial complex. Except for extending the war to the last Ukrainian. At the same time, the US government is pouring money into an unnamed propaganda campaign in support of Ukraine. "Wall to wall, in offices, on the street, at airports, it's one banner after another; the public space is literally flooded with messages like #StandWithUkraine," Patricia said. Of course, no one is asking what this actually means or how flooding the country with weapons will make things better, but as our guest put it, "the only goal here is to destabilize and destroy Russia." Patricia Gorky also discusses the most recent instance of right-wing terrorism in the United States, specifically in Buffalo, where the perpetrator of the mass shooting was inspired by the same ideology that the Ukrainian military's leading forces are committed to.

"On the Barricades" - s04e43 #abortion #abortionUSA #womensrights #feminism #Lviv #babyformula #OntheBarricades 🙏💰 Please, support us via PayPal at https://paypal.me/thebarricade or by becoming a Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/thebarricade 🙏💰 Recent events in the US social and political arena seem to be taken right out of Margaret Atwood’s famous novel, A Handmaid’s Tale! A document leaked form the US Supreme Court revealed that its judges are preparing to overturn a very important judgment, one familiar to the public under the name Roe vs. Wade. This law grants US women the right to privacy, and it prevents state legislatures from banning abortion. The death of the memorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg made it possible for the Trump administration to appoint a very conservative judge to replace her at the Supreme Court. Her replacement, Justice Amy Cohen, has a very clear anti-abortion agenda. The document revealed that the Supreme Court judges are planning to do what most of Americans, the 70% who are in favor of access to abortion, feared for a long time: overturn Roe vs. Wade after 49 years! For the dystopia to be complete, the largest producer of baby formula, the Abbott company, which owns 43% of the market, was investigated by the FDA for severe flaws in its production process. A whistleblower warned the FDA about the problems in November 2021. Now the factory is closed, leading to major shortages in the baby formula market. We invited the Romanian-born American socialist activist, Patricia Gorky, to talk to us about these problems.

This is the second segment of this week's episode of "On the Barricades," in which Boyan Stanislavski, one of the show's hosts, talks with Irina Slav, a Bulgarian energy market expert and author at OilPrice.com. The guests discuss how there is always a way around sanctions and how it is uncertain whether there will be enough gas to meet the world's needs if Russia is removed from the equation. Irina also explains how the EU becoming independent of Russia in terms of gas and oil is wishful thinking as long as there is no infrastructure to receive other gas. This necessitates investments in the billions of euros, which simply cannot be made available immediately, and even if they could, the construction of such infrastructure would take years. For the time being, the European 'leaders'' posturing will simply make things more difficult for industries and households across Europe, but the gas will be primarily Russian. Only many times more expensive, and it remains to be seen whether we will pay 'only' four times more or twenty times more per cubic meter. In addition to being an author at OilPrice.com, Irina Slav is also the proprietor of an independent blog, which can be found on Substack: https://irinaslav.substack.com/